60 Miles from Russia

Vladivostok and Great Horn Bay (Photo credit: Wikimedia)

News reports indicated that North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-Un, is in a “state of paranoia,” after he conducted yet another missile launch on Sunday. Complicating an already tense situation, the missile landed just 60 miles South of Russia’s Vladivostok region. Intelligence reports showed that missile flew 430 miles and reached an altitude of 700km before it landed.

Officials in South Korea and Japan warned that this distance was further than the intermediate-range missile launched by Pyongyang back in February. Russian President, Vladimir Putin, spoke with Chinese President, Xi Jinping, and both men expressed “mutual concerns” about the “growing tensions.” UN Ambassador, Niki Haley, called the launch “a message” to South Korea.

South Korean President, Moon Jae-In, took office on Wednesday, and Haley believes this has Kim Jong-Un even more paranoid than normal. “You first have to get into Kim Jong-Un’s head – which is, he’s in a state of paranoia, he’s incredibly concerned about anything and everything around him,” said Haley.

On Monday, Japanese Defense Minister, Tommy Inada, cautioned that North Korea might have developed a new type of missile than the ones previously launched. The US military’s Pacific Command said it was assessing the type of missile that was fired but does not believe as of now that is was an…

Intercontinental Ballistic Missile

Photo credit: BBC

According to officials, the successful test has not changed the threat assessment for the United States. Needless to say, everyone is getting prepared for the “worst-case” scenario. Both Japan and Hawaii have issued warnings to their citizens and updated their disaster plans, which now include specific instructions dealing with a missile strike.

The White House included Russia in a statement about the launch, noting the proximity of the landing and the reaction likely to arise from the situation. “With the missile impacting so close to Russian soil – in fact, closer to Russia than to Japan, the President cannot imagine that Russia is pleased,” the statement read.

The UN Security Council is set to meet on Tuesday to discuss the launch. Those talks will likely include the implementation of even tougher sanctions against the regime. President Trump has previously stated that he would prefer a “diplomatic solution” rather than a military intervention but cautioned that a “major, major conflict” was possible. With a missile landing that close to Russia, that possibility seems to be exponentially larger.